"Golden Gate Capital founded and began building Infor 18 years ago," said Golden Gate Capital co-founder David Dominik.

Originally founded as Agilsys, the company absorbed dozens of other businesses over the years, including the 2004 acquisition of German company Infor Business Systems (Agilsys changed its name to Infor shortly after). Other notable acquisitions included ERP specialists Mapics, SSA Global and Lawson, CRM vendor SalesLogix, and BI and analytics company Birst.

"We are selling our remaining stake to Koch Industries, our partner in Infor for the last three years, because of the significant strategic value between Infor and Koch," added Dominik.

Golden Gate Capital managing director Rishi Chandna said "Over the last several years working with Koch Industries and the management team, it is very apparent that there is a great partnership with Koch that will take the company to its next level of success.

"We are very proud to have worked with the management team in transforming Infor repeatedly over the years as the market has evolved."

Koch, a longtime Infor customer, made a US$2 billion investment in the software company in 2017 through its Koch Equity Development (KED) subsidiary.

Just over a year ago, Golden Gate Capital and KED injected another US$1.5 billion into Infor in what was presented as pre-IPO funding.

But Infor will instead become a wholly-owned Koch subsidiary. The current management team will remain unchanged.

"Koch's decision to acquire Infor is a strong endorsement of our product strategy and focus on creating innovative solutions for our customers," said Infor CEO Kevin Samuelson.

"As a subsidiary of a $110 billion-plus revenue company that re-invests 90% of earnings back into its businesses, we will be in the unique position to drive digital transformation in the markets we serve. We are rapidly expanding our industry-specific CloudSuites and offering customer experiences and outcomes that are well beyond what is standard in enterprise software."

Koch Industries executive vice president and CEO of enterprises Jim Hannan said "Software is no longer an industry vertical; it is a disruptive layer that is transforming every facet of society.

"As a global organisation spanning multiple industries across 60 countries, Koch has the resources, knowledge and relationships to help Infor continue to expand its transformative capabilities."

The transaction is subject to customary conditions and regulatory approvals and is expected to close in the first half of 2020.

Financial terms were not disclosed, but the deal reportedly values Infor at between US$11 billion and US$13 billion.